Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Coolest Little Spot in the 3rd
Eating lunch here is like spending time with a friend in his kitchen. If I ever open my own restaurant, I would fashion it after this place. I settled on a lentil, chicken and sausage stew with rice and veggies.

The chicken fell off the bone at the lightest touch and was gone in no time. The sausage was nice too - though I couldn't tell exactly what is was made of. In France, sometimes it's better not to know. Overall, a satisfying though not spectacular meal.

It's the place itself that steals the show. It consists of one big room with the kitchen stove out in the open against the wall. When you come in, Chef Laurent shows you the day's concoctions by lifting the pot lids one at a time. All sorts of freshly baked cakes and pies are on display too.

In the middle of the floor is a rectangular table with seating inside of it, so you can sit and look out. As I ate from inside my little perch I gazed around at the tremendous amount of bric-a-brac that makes the place so charming. There are photographs, art, clocks, statues, bookshelves, utensils, and even a few electric guitars - though I couldn't figure out who the guitar player was. In the background Chef Laurent is walking a customer through the quiche choices.

Here's a shot from inside the rectangular table looking out at some nearby diners. One of them gave me the old Parisian tongue poke - yeah, right back at ya. As you can tell from the shelves, this is also an epicerie (rough translation - deli) where you can buy beer, wine, cold cuts, fruits, salads, etc. They boast of having 97 types of beer from 14 countries on their website. You can see the aforementioned guitars in this shot as well as the computer that Laurent uses to surf the net when not serving his customers.

The table in the front window offers up a nice view onto rue Montmorency. Note the many hanging clocks - none set to any time I could make sense of.

I finished off my meal with a warm slice of tarte tatin (apple pie) which tasted like it just came out of the oven. I will definitely be coming back - they open at 9am and I'm interested to see what they offer for breakfast.

Hi we went there on Tuesday 17th Oct 2011 and it didn't disappoint, Just as described. Laurent showed us the dishes of the day, we had meatballs with capers. The plate cost 8.50 Euro's. I think the menu was 14 Euro's. The lady, wife? was delightful and charming with my two children, nothing was too much trouble. We would love to go again, please visit and experience a little bit of French France.